structure
by break me like a promise
Summary: James is just an architect and she is just the most beautiful girl he's ever seen. /JamesII/OC


**title:** structure

**words:** 1131

**notes:** this is for the _**the fault in our stars quote challenge**_. it's my favorite book of all time, and... you should read it.

* * *

James Potter the Second was good at math. Scratch that, he was brilliant. He was the next great architect of the Wizarding World at age twenty-three. He understood the complexities of Hogwarts, pointing out the structure of the Great Hall's ceiling and the flying buttresses out the outside within his first ten minutes at school. By seventh year, he was working with a Muggle architect during summers, studying and designing the flat he would soon live in.

Headmistress McGonagall hires him barely three days after he walks out of the large double doors for the last time. James declines her offer for the time being, and goes to Athens for the summer. Hogwarts can wait. Merlin knows it waited one thousand years for him to arrive.

/

James is nearly eighteen when he meets Kate Brown for the first time. He is sitting next to the Parthenon after ditching his tour group, studying the columns intently. She walks up behind him and sits beside him, her small hands splaying across the notes he has strewn across the grass.

"Excuse me—" he begins, and then he sees her. Her blue eyes are the color of the cloudless Greece sky, and her light chestnut brown hair is down to the middle of her back. Pale skin, smooth as porcelain.

"What are you doing?" She asks him, and chills run up and down James's spine. Her voice is like a drug and he needs to hear more.

"Studying." He pauses. "I'm an architect." He turns his gaze back to the ancient temple of Athena. The ivory columns are slanted toward the sunlight, and he squints to make out the ornate designs near the top. He doesn't know it, but she is studying him.

"There isn't anything wrong with the way the castle looks now," she says absently, twirling a piece of her long hair.

That catches his attention. Her face is eight inches from his, and she hasn't looked away. She finds his blue eyes captivating. "Castle?"

"James Potter, I know who you are. Everyone does. And Hogwarts isn't the only school of magic. I went to Beauxbatons."

"Do they need an architect?"

"No. Ours grounds are… girls only," she says, laughing.

"That's a damn shame," he smiles, turning finally to focus on the beautiful girl sitting next to him on the grass. "I'm James."

She snorts with laughter. "Yeah. I know. I'm Kate. Kate Brown."

"You're beautiful, Kate Brown."

"More beautiful than the Parthenon?"

He shrugs. "Oh, yes. It wasn't a tough choice."

"Good."

/

He starts living on Hogwarts grounds again after a month. He's gotten permission to build his own flat off of a hallway on the fifth floor. He designs it, and it is none other than Kate's cousin Noah who helps him magic it together.

"You like her?" Noah asks roughly, taking a drag from a cigarette.

"Love her," James corrects automatically, and then his eyes widen because this is news to him.

"Treat her right, James Potter. She's been through a lot."

James just nods like he knows what Noah's referring to, and goes back to his notes on the castle's structural supports.

/

Kate walks onto the Hogwarts grounds when James is sitting by the Black Lake, drawing a rough sketch of the new gamekeeper's hut. Her cold hands cover his eyes, and he recognizes the curve of her fingers and her long turquoise painted nails. He smiles as she sits down next to him on the grass. She looks into the low October sun for a long time before she says, "I love you, James."

James blinks. "I love you, too, Kate."

They sit in a longer silence, each reveling in the simplicity of this moment.

"You hands would be prettier if you had a ring," he muses, laughing slightly.

She looks up at him, laughter in her blue eyes. "Sure, James. Maybe someday."

/

"Do you ever take that necklace off?"

"It was my mom's," Kate says quietly. "She died during a transformation, right after she had me. She had lost a lot of blood, and transforming just… it was too much for her to take. Dad and all of her Healers tried to stop it, but… there wasn't really anything they could do about it."

James sits down on her couch next to her. They are in her London flat, and she doesn't know he's got a ring in his pocket. "I'm… so sorry, babe. That's horrible."

"Yeah. But it's not like I knew her enough to really grieve; I just kind of grew up with it. Dad sent me to Beauxbatons because they both went to Hogwarts and it was just… hard for him." Her eyes are parallel to the horizon outside the window. "I'm sorry," she says, turning back to him. She fingers are wrapped around the silver locket, and her other hand is clinging to James's.

"Don't apologize."

"Okay," she smiles slightly, and puts her head on his chest. James puts his arm around her shoulders protectively. It's almost midnight—December 24th is drawing close.

"James?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you remember what you said a few months ago about my hands?"

"You want to get married," he deadpans, smiling down at her. She nods slightly into his chest. "Guess you'll need an engagement ring, huh?" She looks at him curiously, their faces inches apart.

"You have one, don't you?"

"Yeah," he says. "But since you already know that," he pauses to take out the folded piece of paper from his pocket, "I guess I'll show you this instead."

Kate takes her time in unfolding the paper he passes her. There are deep creases, like it has been folded a hundred times over. He watches her as her eyes gaze over the paper, and then her face crumbles in confusion before the eye-widening realization. "This is our house, isn't it, James?" She pulls him closer, wishing there was any way she could show him what he means to her.

/

They get married ten months later in Greece. Kate's eyes match the sky as always, and she wears her hair down. Her dress is simple, just like the rest of their relationship. James has never loved her more then when he sees her walking down the green grass aisle.

And then he shows her the house. He shows her the letters he wrote her from Hogwarts that he never sent to her in the living room. In the kitchen, he shows her the recipes he got from his family and her father. On the stairs, he shows her the rose petals he placed there. And in their bedroom, he shows her how much he loves her.

"I wish we could stay like this for infinity."

"Some infinities are bigger than other infinities."

* * *

**author's note;** please do not favorite without a review.


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